Higher Teen Wages Pose Unacceptable Risk

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EditorialThe Hartford Courant

Will raising the minimum wage lead to more drunken driving deaths for teenagers?

That's the surprising proposition reported in the latest issue of The Connecticut Economy, a quarterly publication of UConn. It's worth considering as Connecticut's minimum wage, now at $8.70 an hour, increases to $9 next year and, in 2017, to $10.10.

In hiking the minimum wage, the state may be inadvertently aggravating the problem of teen drinking and driving.

Many teenagers work at minimum-wage jobs. Teens with more money in their pockets may spend it "on goods their parents are unlikely to purchase for them, such as alcohol," the UConn report says.

The numbers back that up. The report quotes the 2012 Review of Economics and Statistics, an MIT publication, showing a "robust positive relationship between the minimum wage and the number of alcohol-related accidents involving teen drivers."

Following another state's minimum-wage increase, the MIT study showed, fatal accidents involving teens rose from 7 per 100,000 to nearly 10 per 100,000 — an increase of almost 40 percent.

The report suggests one solution: "Impose a different minimum wage for workers under a certain age, say 20." That makes sense.

Connecticut already has a different minimum wage for those under 18. Employers may pay them 85 percent of the minimum. But that differential applies for only the first 200 hours of employment, which for a typical part-time job might be 90 days or so; then it's up to full pay.

The study also points out, however, that a two-tier minimum wage might provide an incentive for employers to hire cheaper teen labor instead of lower-skilled adults — thus defeating one of the major goals of a higher minimum.

Saving jobs is important, but so is saving lives.

As part of its overall wage reform, the legislature should consider adopting a permanent under-20 minimum wage at least $2 an hour less than adults are paid.